Did you get a chance to check out my latest article for The Atlantic? It’s about the rise of plagiarism among self-published books. Anonymous strangers are stealing other people’s books, changing them superficially, and passing them off as their own…
I’m so excited to announce my first article in The Smithsonian, The Forgotten Dust Bowl Novel That Rivaled The Grapes of Wrath. It’s about Sanora Babb, who wrote a great Dust Bowl novel called Whose Names Are Unknown the same…
Check out my most recent Mental Floss post, 11 Facts About I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Maya Angelou was such a fascinating person.
I have an article in the March/April issue of Writer’s Digest titled “When Truth Is Stranger Than (Children’s) Fiction.” Next time you’re in a bookstore, pick up a copy and check it out.
I have a new post up at Mental Floss: 8 Lovely Facts About The Secret Garden. I was surprised to learn that Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic book is basically an allegory for Christian Science. Weird. Click here to read the…
Literary Hub mentioned my article in The Atlantic about literary journals charging reading fees to submitting writers among The 50 Biggest Literary Stories of the Year. It’s under number 31: Literary Journals Making Money Off Slush Piles. Check it out!
I wrote another Halloween-themed Mental Floss post: 9 Mournful Facts About Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.” Ravens can really talk. Here’s a video of a raven saying “nevermore.”
I’m excited to share an article I wrote for The Atlantic on literary journal reading fees. It looks into whether literary journals should charge writers fees to submit their writing, an important issue that needs more discussion. Check out: Should…
Here are my latest Mental Floss articles. They are Halloween themed. Wooo (spooky noise). 10 Monstrous Facts About ‘Frankenstein’ The amount of death that happened around Mary Shelley during the writing and publication of Frankenstein is astounding. Three children, her…
More Mental Floss articles that I wrote! Get ’em while they’re hot! 12 Gloriumptious Facts About Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl actually was a chocolate tester for a candy company when he was a kid. It stuck with…
Here’s a few recent articles: 13 Facts About L. Frank Baum’s ‘Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ L. Frank Baum was a fascinating person. I had no idea. He was a chicken farmer and a traveling salesman and went around the country…
Did you catch my most recent article in Mental Floss? It’s 11 Dickensian Facts About ‘Great Expectations’. Did you know Estella may have been based on Charles Dickens’s mistress? Also, remember the 1998 movie version with Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan…